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Los Angeles
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE INTERFERENCE (Rogue Machine at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
THERE’S NO INTERFERING WITH GREAT THEATER What an extraordinary piece of theater was this Hollywood Fringe entry from Pepperdine University in Malibu. The Interference confronts the dilemma of how rape or other abuse victims can find justice in a corrupt world. Lynda Radley wrote this 75-minute piece with Pepperdine’s drama department in mind. The title…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: FUCK TINDER: A LOVE STORY (Sacred Fools Theatre in Hollywood)
IT’S LIKE REAL LIFE, BUT BETTER About a decade ago, I was having a miserable time dating. The age of electronica was firmly in place, and chat rooms, lengthy bios, and requested cock shots were making me ill, and the cost-benefit was low to say the least. To quote Rodney Dangerfield, I gave up dating…
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Los Angeles Cabaret Review: BLACK & WHITE IN PARIS: A CABARET MUSICAL (Stage 12 at Sunset Las Palmas Studios)
OOH-LA-LA Where am I? Is this a dream? Just when you thought cabaret in Los Angeles was on life support comes this bar of gold at the Hollywood Fringe. Do not miss this extravaganza of refreshingly distinctive singers and dancers, the likes of which will not be around again soon. Inspired by the black-and-white photography of…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: ANDY: THE RED-NOSED WARHOLA (La-La Land Gallery)
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT A WARHOL If you thought Pop Artist Andy Warhol only referenced and defined mass culture and consumerism through replicated images of Campbell’s soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, think again. Standing among Paddy Chayefsky as one of the most prescient mavens regarding culture and television, Warhol was a prolific writer’”and talker: In 1976,…
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San Diego Theater Preview: KING RICHARD II (The Old Globe’s Lowell Davies Festival Theatre)
“For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.” Now through July 15, 2017, Robert Sean Leonard (TV’s House, The Old Globe’s Pygmalion) returns to the Old Globe in San Diego to take on the title role of one of the greatest of Shakespeare’s towering cycle of…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: RED FLAGS (Capital W at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
FLAGGED DOWN Who hasn’t walked away from some bad dates thinking, “Jesus, that was like being in a play.” Well, now Capital W — a theater company that offers unconventional, immersive, and site-specific theater — has created a bad date for you in the aptly titled Red Flags. This one-on-one improvisational play, in which you participate…
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San Diego Theater Review: DAMN YANKEES (San Diego Musical Theatre at Spreckels Theatre)
DAMN, YANKEES DOESN’T HIT IT OUT OF THE PARK While many of Jerry Ross and Richard Adler’s songs from the 1955 Broadway classic hold up rather well, Douglass Wallop and George Abbott’s book isn’t tremendously captivating by 2017 standards. Oh, it’s a likeable-enough musical, but only a stellar production can sell this aging staple. San Diego Musical…
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San Diego Theater Review: SHOCKHEADED PETER (Cygnet Theatre Company)
WHAT A SHOCK In 1845, German psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann wrote a disturbing but popular children’s book featuring the perils of children who misbehave. A century and a half later, in 1998, the popular book was adapted for the stage by Improbable, a London theater company, and The Tiger Lillies, a cult British musical trio; together, they brought the stories…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: 2017 PLAYBOY JAZZ FESTIVAL (The Hollywood Bowl)
THIS FESTIVAL IS ALL ABOUT PLAY, BOY OK, you’ve heard about it for years. But now you’re ready to take the plunge (and you should be) to attend the world famous Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. These two marathon days, June 10 & 11, 2017, can seem a bit intimidating, so let me…
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Los Angeles Concert Preview: BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE (Michael Feinstein, Liza Minnelli, Storm Large & the Pasadena POPS)
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN! LIZA MINNELLI! STORM LARGE! JOEL GREY! BROADWAY! No one can argue that Michael Feinstein’”charismatic, appealing, boyish, excited, and eager to please’”has singlehandedly reinvigorated the American Songbook for the 21st century, but this beguiling raconteur is also a consummate showman who is so knowledgeable and adorable that you may just want to pinch his…
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San Diego Theater Preview: THE IMAGINARY INVALID (Fiasco Theater at The Old Globe)
AN IMAGINARY IMAGINARY Back in March, Roundabout Theatre announced their plans for 2017. After collaborating with Fiasco Theater on their acclaimed paired-down production of Into the Woods in 2015, Roundabout has named Fiasco their company in residence. This means Fiasco will be provided with an artistic home and full use of Roundabout’s resources to continue developing their work….
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Theater Review: THE BOOK OF MORMON (National Tour reviewed at Hollywood Pantages Theatre)
FAITH IN FANTASY One of the best and certainly funniest shows of this century has returned. Beginning its latest national tour at the Hollywood Pantages last night, The Book of Mormon remains a perfectly packaged fusion of the satire our world desperately needs and a sassy musical comedy. From the wizards who concocted the all-offending South Park…
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Los Angeles Music Preview: LUX AETERNA 20TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT (Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall)
SHINE ON, ETERNAL LIGHT In just twenty years of existence, Morten Lauridsen’s gorgeous choral masterwork Lux Aeterna has become one of the most performed works worldwide. Under direction of the late Paul Salamunovich, our own Los Angeles Master Chorale presented the world premiere of this five-movement requiem in 1997, and recorded it the next year. Now, this iconic gem…
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Los Angeles Dance Review: MARTHA GRAHAM AND AMERICAN MUSIC (Valley Performing Arts Center)
DESIRING MARTHA GRAHAM Presented at the Valley Performing Arts Center, Martha Graham and American Music took five dance pieces from within the Dance Company’s repertoire and matched them to live accompaniment by the L.A.-based music collective wild Up and its conductor Christopher Rountree. The result was a testament to Graham’s modern-day relevance as an artist, enhanced by a universal theme that…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: BATTLEFIELD (Peter Brook’s production at The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
SNOB HIT Well, that was boring. Of all the people on the planet who should understand the difference between theater and an underwhelming fringe entry (low cost and well-meaning with no set, minimal costume, and small cast), you would think it would be the great innovator and influencer Peter Brook. He may not be a household…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: LUCKY STIFF (Actors Co-op in Hollywood)
A LIMP STIFF Before composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens were, well, the Flaherty and Ahrens who created Once on This Island, Ragtime, Suessical, et al., they were a young upstart pair of ambitious writers. Their first project, Lucky Stiff, a musical farce based on Michael Butterworth’s 1983 novel The Man Who Broke the Bank at…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE (Ebony Repertory Theatre)
SIX KINDS OF WONDERFUL I’ve loved Obba Babatundé since I first saw him thirty-five years ago in Dreamgirls. Even amidst the legendary star turns of his female co-stars, he made a remarkable impression, with his ineffable presence, and warm, smoky voice. He’s had many successes in the years since, and the 25th Anniversary production of…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE SWEETHEART DEAL (Los Angeles Theatre Center)
SWEETHEART DEAL IS A MISSED ROMANCE There’s been scant theater documenting the plight of the Latino farm workers and their fight for economic and racial equality, especially in California. Arts advocate and playwright Diane Rodriguez has lived some of that fight, which is reflected in the best parts of her new play, The Sweetheart Deal. Unfortunately,…
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Dance Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Scottish Ballet)
A STREETCAR TO HEAVEN Thankfully not just a review of record. Still, you only have two more chances to catch what is surely the most phenomenal storytelling I have ever seen in a narrative ballet. The highest compliment I can offer director Nancy Meckler, choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and composer Peter Salem is that you don’t…
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Theater Review: JERSEY BOYS (2017-18 National Tour)
JERSEY CASH COW Jersey Boys, the terrific 2004 jukebox musical inspired by the story of pop sensation Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, is one of the greatest triumphs in Broadway history, spawning a spate of companies around the globe and a slew of national tours. So what’s a producer to do since the Broadway…
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